Too Bad
by Biggreengiant
Summary: It takes place in present day america. And I actually based the book on the theme of "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato. Its still simple, with a few over developed concepts, but mainly scifi. I hope you all enjoy.


Intro: A bit of Plato on the plate, can you guess where?

I'm not really sure what to say at this point. In a matter of hours what we once thought was the truth turned out to be nothing but lies. The entire fabric of democracy and freedom had been stripped from us and burned in front of our very eyes. Things that were once thought to be science fiction turned out to be very true, the fears of little children, the things that go bump in the night, mysterious objects flying from over head, all be came very real for all of us in a matter of hours. All that's left to say is…how do you deal with it? Do you accept it, or turn and run?

Chap 1: And the world went BANG!

I suppose that was my initial thought after we were all huddled in a bomb shelter and told wait for the teachers to come back (Who even knew the school had a bomb shelter?). Regardless we were there in the deepest darkest corner of the high school waiting for conformation to come out. Every now and then the school would shudder violently as if bomb shells had gone off some where near by. It seemed as if a war was going on out side, but other than that nothing else could be figured out.

The only adult in the room was Mr. Lexis and he too seemed a bit frightened on what was going on. "Lee…Lee" The voice that was calling me almost didn't reach me until I turned and peered through the dark at Benny "You said you saw something right? What was it?" I suppose I had seen something. When the first explosion happened I was in the second half of my double period art class with Morel, Catherine, Michael and Chris. Our art class which gives us an excellent view of the school yard allowed us to see a group of men in what looked like full soldier garment huddled in the four corners of the school yard.

Ms. Hill was the first to get us out of the room but it was a couple seconds after that the entire school filled with the loud chopping of helicopter rudders and then _BOOM!_ That's exactly what I told Benny, and he shrank back into the dark to think about it. It was definitely something to think about, how do you comprehend something like that? However the weirdest part of this scary incident is that a good number of the entire student body was absent, and so were the faculty. As a matter of fact all my friends came to school with stories of how the trains were empty despite it being morning rush hour.

I looked down at my cell, it was well past school hours, about 6:30, and everyone in the room was getting restless. The heat was terribly unbearable and many of us had stripped off shoes, and shirts to keep the temperature down, but nothing seemed to work. The room had no windows and the lights and running water had went out about and hour ago, Lexis was having a hard time keeping everyone's moral up, and many of us had accepted doom as an alternative.

It was now around 7:20 and the commotion out side was dying down, the booms had stopped and the school had given its last violent shudder perhaps 15 minutes ago. Lexis had already gotten up and moved towards the door, and with some effort managed to force it open. The light that spilled into the room was very little as it was already getting dark outside this time of year, but it was still enough to show what sweaty messes we all were. The room began to empty as many of us scrambled to find shirts and socks.

What awaited us outside was something straight out of_ Black Hawk Down. _Many of the buildings around the school had been destroyed; the few that had managed to stand up right didn't look as if they would be up for much longer. The sky even though dark still seemed polluted with dust and smoke, and even on street level there seemed to be a certain thickness to the air around us. There were smoldering vehicles and still things on fire all around us, the school its self was in shambles, and the entire West Wing was covered with craters and bullet holes. Iron grates from over the windows hung loosely and many of the glass pains had been blown out. The tarmac on the street had been over turned and many of the cars flipped over.

I looked at all of us. The few seniors that were here, Ishauna, Desiree, Benny (Isaiah), Chris, Antonyo, Josh, Delon, Danny, Jimmy, Caroll, Katrina, Latoya, Arielle, Pascale, Morel, Catherine, Sara, Ramel, Sarah, Courtney (boy), and Courtney (girl), Clarissa and some others. And the some of the under classmen whose' names I don't know. One thing that was similar among all of us is that we had no idea what was going on. Many of the underclassmen wandered off a couple feet from where we stood and looked at the wreckage, while some tried their cell phones. Mr. Lexis was just staring in awe and occasionally shook his head. "So what now?" asked Josh looking from me to Chris to Benny, "I don't know…" replied Benny.

In the distance we could hear more shells going off. "It's over the city" I said softly. No one spoke just listening to the gentle echo of explosions in the night air. "The bridges are probably down you know" some one said "How will my parents get home then?" asked another, "Do you think the trains still work?" started some one else.

I looked at Chris, "The only way to get some where safely would be to stay above ground right?" "I guess so" he answered "No 'cuz what if another strike raid happens" started Antonyo. "That's the thing, we know what's happening up here, but the tunnels are probably ten times more dangerous. And besides what if the trains aren't working? There's no way to tell if the tracks have power, or even how to navigate the tunnels". Everyone again went silent, and I felt guilty.

A couple more jets went streaking over head, and the silence continued. "Damn it!" we turned and looked at Mr. Lexis. "Where are the under classmen?" There was a sudden sense of panic as everyone noticed the increasing number of missing children. The underclassmen had wandered off, even some of the seniors did, and which direction they headed in was anybodies guess. "Can I trust you guys to stay here in case they come back?!" started Mr. Lexis "You cant be serious?" asked Clarissa, "you're going to go look for them?" we turned from Clarissa to Lexis's determined expression "what do you think? I can't just leave them out there, and they probably haven't even gotten out that far, I'll be back soon", and just like that he want jogging out towards the end of street.

He hit the corner and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. I don't want to accept what I saw, because something like was just down right impossible. But the sudden break of sweat, racing heart beat, pumping adrenaline, and every fiber in my being begged to differ. A giant hand, blurred, but obviously not human, and big enough to fully engulf a caravan reached out and grabbed Lexis in under a second. I stood there with my mouth wide open, breathing heavy, and knowing very well that we were all dead. That what ever that thing was had gotten the others, that it's whatever that thing is they were shooting at. That something really messed up was happening right now around that very corner, and when whatever it is, is done its coming right this way and it was going to be hungry still.

None of us moved, everyone was on edge, staring at the corner with machine like qualities. It was as if the corner itself was hypnotizing us. The bomb shells still went off in the distance with an eerie rhythmic type quality. A growl, that's all it took to get us, running away from the corner and down the block. It was big that's all I knew, that's all I was able to figure out with it chasing us. Big, huge actually, and taking giant steps which meant it had no problems keeping up with us, but we still ran, over rocks, chunks of buildings, fallen trees, and blown up cars. We ran with the very feeling that it wasn't worth it, that no matter what we did we were done, for that it was all over. This story ends now.

_BANG!_ Followed by the sound of air molecules getting forced to move out of the way, an explosion, followed by heat snaking its way down my shirt and super heating my back, and finally an after shock that knocked all of us to the ground, instinct told to keep my head down and I did. More bangs, and the sounds of air getting ripped apart, and more explosions and heat. The monsters cries were deafening, it ripped into the very being of my soul and shook whatever I had left there, I cried out with it, I wanted it to stop, and then…black.

Now I have never passed out before in my life, but I was still able to tell I had done it. I came too probably just seconds after I blacked out. The monster was gone, but had been replaced with a low deep machine like growl, and the gentle vibration of earth. I looked up and peered down towards the direction of the noise. Creeping up the street like a sloth in armored plating was a tank. Barrel still steaming in the cold night air, and glowing slightly from multiple back to back firing, it stopped a couple feet from us and emitted the obvious noises of its main engine shutting down.

Most of us started to get up, helping others up and reassuring others that it's ok. We had been saved, and what great timing. The whole lot of us headed towards the tank as if it were all our original mothers. Then the act of a mother bird kicking a baby bird out of the nest, the turret aimed at the school, a spot directly above us and fired. We scrambled out of the way, tripping over each other as we went. Then another shot at the building across the street. The large pieces of concrete, metal and glasses wit the ground with unbelievable force, surprisingly missing all of us…I think, or at least hope so.

The tank powered back up, made a turn around and headed back up the street. Leaving us bewildered and scared, and helpless, some had resorted to crying, others had simply run off leaving a mere handful of us trapped on Dean Street, tank on one side, monster on the other. I literally did not know what to do. Everything I had ever learned in life, any book I may have read, movie I may have seen, did not prepare me for survival in an urban waste land with monsters with out at least a pistol and 29 shots.

No matter how you deciphered the facts, none of this could be real, monsters weren't real, renegade tanks don't just cruise up and down the streets of Brooklyn, and even if they do the tank's driver must have some type of sense to help a group of high school kids out. Not try and flatten them with tons of debris. "NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE!" I screamed out and kicked a rock that was a tad more weighed than I had anticipated but managed to hide my now throbbing foot. "Now I really want to know" started Josh "What the hell do you do now!?" None of us could tell him, but I at least knew what I wanted to do. "I'm getting the hell off this street" I said quietly to myself, "What?!" said Benny, and he made a grab for me but he was too late. I ran in the direction the tank was headed, as fast as I could get myself over and around the rubble.

I tried not to look but there were obviously people…kids from the school trapped underneath some of the piles but no time for that, I needed to get off the street, I needed to get some where safe, I _wanted _to go home. Some one had given chase from behind; I cared not and kept going. I made it to the intersection, looked left, nothing, looked right the tank was there waiting. It fired once, but I was already gone, tearing across the intersection and up the next street, I knew exactly where I was headed, just getting there was the problem.

I had run three blocks up 3 blocks, before turning left, run up one block, then a right onto Flatbush and down 4 more. It wasn't until I stopped for breath that I realized Chris, Antonyo, and surprisingly Josh had managed to follow. We all sat on the pavement and looked at one another all thinking the same thing. 'Where's Benny?' We looked down a little ashamed of ourselves, knowing we had left a best friend behind. I almost wanted to go back, but we had made it too far. I looked up and down the street, and saw a rare site, a still in tact dollar van. Its model was a Ford Econoline, 4 rows of seating in the back and capable of holding 3 adults in each seat. The van of churches every where, I had once called it.

With out speaking, I got up and head towards it, walked around to the drives side, and opened the door and sat down into the velvet drivers' seat. Chris got in and sat shot gun, and Antonyo and Josh in the back. The ignition however was empty, we searched the van for a little while until Chris found the spare in the glove compartment and we were off. I drove us down Flatbush not really sure where I was taking them. I knew I wanted to go home, and since Chris was on the way I suppose we would stop there.

"Check it out, there's a lady over there" said Chris pointing out the window at home pulling a crying child into a tattered but neat building. I drove the van in as close as I could get and Chris called out to her "Hey! Are you ok?" the woman looked up, at first confused, then to anger. "You SCUM!" she screamed out at us, "You think you can just toy with people? Use them as pawns in your freaky experiments. Get out of her you filthy, government, lap dogs!" Chris looked back at everyone, but we only shrugged at him. "What are you talking about?!" he called back, the woman obviously realizing that we weren't who she thought we were changed her speech but was still pissed off. "You Kids ought to be inside you know! Damn don't you ever listen to the news, that thing has a radio in it right? Turn it on!" and with that she picked up her child and headed inside.

It wasn't until we were driving away that I realized the lady was dressed in rags, very dirty rags…almost peasant like. Chris reached over and turned on the radio, at first fuzzy but then tuned in:

"_What is there really to say? We've managed to jump the gun and then some, to find the answers to questions that have been deemed unanswerable. As human beings, the rule of planet earth, we have been taken over and tossed aside. We've found the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end opened the door in front, and behind us." _Then another voice older than the first deeper and perhaps even wise, "_What do you mean?" "What I mean is that 3D is no longer the limit. We've already discovered 4D and 5D are opening up as we speak! As far as we can tell there should be an infinite amount of D's. Spanning all across the fabric of time and space, linking every last world, dimension, and sub dimension" "A sub dimension?" _asked the other voice, "_Yes a dimension identical to the one before it, but in this world choices made, and things said are exact opposites. Sub Dimensions can't be reached through any other dimension except the one it's copying" _

We sat and listened in total disbelief this talk of dimensions, and sub dimensions made no sense. It was something straight from a video game. I turned up the volume put the van in gear and continued onward.

"_How did these dimensions open up to one another Dr. Guerin?" _asked the deep voice _"How? Well that's actually easy. Believe it or not these dimensions could have only opened up when the distribution of power between the earth, moon, and the sun were equal, across the board" "But if what you say is true Doctor, then there are an infinite amount of dimensions, how could this have happened?" "I admit, the chances of such a thing are rather remarkable. We don't even have a ratio that high except a 1: infinite chance of it happening." "I see, uh Dr. Guerin will you explain to us about the first wave effect?" "Ah yes..." _Dr. Guerin's voice had gotten very excited about that question. _"The First Wave Effect or F.W.E, was a remarkable phenomena when people from our dimension, and those from others, creatures, objects, molecules, atoms, even knowledge. Gets switched with something else on a random selection" "Random, Doctor?" "Yes Random, none of any of my team have any clue how to tell who or what will go next, we have been able to predict when it will happen. Its complicated and takes large sums of energy, but we're off by only 15 seconds, which is good but doesn't give anyone ample time to prepare" "Thank you doctor, we will be back shortly after a small break" _

The channel went blank and we were almost too my house. "What does all that mean?" asked Josh, "I guess it means that at any time we can wind up in another world, and depending on when it happens most of us could already be gone. We could be in that sub dimension thing they were talking about" we all accepted it as a possibility and moved on. I pulled the van onto my street and up to my apartment building. "Lee, that's your apartment building right?" I sighed and replied "yep", my building was missing its roof_. _

This didn't stop us from going inside; we walked up the sidewalk, to the door which was unlocked, and into the building. My building was straight forward it had no lobby instead just a small 4 by 5 room where the mail boxes where that lead into the stair well, and 3 landings. Each of the 3 landings had 4 apartments. Now however there was an open flame in the middle of the first landing, an old man sitting on a crate napping, a missing flight of stairs that had been replaced with a ladder. Talking could be heard from within the other apartments, about the dimensions, and how this all could've happened. I headed past the old man and up the ladder to the second floor which had no fire but still my neighbors going from apartment to apartment carrying water, food, and clothes. "It's like…a community" whispered Josh "Or some third world country" replied Antonyo. We continued up to my apartment on the third floor. Surprisingly the door was closed and still locked, but with the missing roof it still allowed people to get inside. I unlocked the door and looked at four boys around our age, playing with _my _stuff.


End file.
